In voicemail and other unified messaging systems, there is currently a means for indicating an availability status to an incoming caller. Often, this status is manually set by the called user using his or her voicemail or other similar system. Such systems are device specific in that the availability status is indicated for the device being called and not necessarily any other devices. Voice messaging systems typically use the following indications of user availability: 1) Forwarding for a particular reason: e.g. CFNR (Call Forward No Reply) indicates that the user did not answer the call, CFB (Call Forward Busy) indicates that the user is on another call with the same device, and CFDND (Call Forward Do Not Disturb) indicates that the user did not wish to be disturbed; 2) Time of Day: indicates that the user has probably left for the day 3) Holiday: indicates that the user is most likely not currently in the office; 4) User set availability: an alternate greeting (recorded and turned on by the user) is played such as “I am out of the office this week.” Often, these indications must be manually set by the user.
These indications, while addressing availability, do not provide the type of dynamic information such as “Be right back” or “Out to lunch” that can be provided using presence status. Presence status is a semi-automated mechanism which allows for more granular and exact indications of a user's availability. There are currently many systems which track, monitor or poll for the presence status of users. The presence status can be sent using presence and instant messaging software on a user's computing device. The user may indicate the presence status to a presence server or similar mechanism. Presence status for a user is often relayed from the presence server to one or more requesting devices/users (called “watchers”). For presence status to make sense, however, it must be displayed to a user on a device capable of displaying and requesting such information. For instance, if a user on a land-line telephone wanted presence status information, it would typically not be available to them graphically (by text indication) since the land-line telephone is not equipped with that capability to request/handle presence status information. A prior patent application, System and Method for Presence Enabled Electronic Mail Folders, bearing Ser. No. 10/255,908, filed on Sep. 26, 2002, includes a thorough description of presence status operation, and is incorporated by reference herein.
Thus, there is a need for integrating presence status information with voice messaging systems and making information available to devices that are traditionally not capable of supporting presence status.